June 20

Today is the First Day of Summer for Leap Years.

1782         Congress adopts the Great Seal of the United States.

1837         Accession of Queen Victoria, age 18, to the British throne.  English interest in Wyoming would name a ranch for her, the Victoria Regina.  While no longer owned by those interest, the ranch name lives on as the VR.

1844 Francis E. Warren born in Hinsdale, Massachusetts.

1865  Arapahos attack the eight men of Company G, 11th Ohio Cavalry, and the civilian telegraph operator, ten miles east of Sweetwater Station, Wyoming while they were repairing the telegraph line.  The cavalrymen were grossly outnumbered in the assault.  Three Arapahos and the telepgraph operator were killed in the engagement.

1868  Ft. Fred Steele established.

1881  Sitting Bull surrenders to the U.S. Army.

1908   Thomas A. Cosgriff and associates granted a franchise for an electric railway in Cheyenne which would commence operations on August 20.

1912  The State Training School opens in Lander.   Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1912  An explosion at the No. 4 Mine near Kemmerer killed six miners.

1916  The Casper Record for June 20, 1916. War with Mexico inevitable
 

Compared to many other newspapers, the Casper Record always had a calm appearance. Nonetheless, on this day, Casper Record readers learned that we were almost certainly on the brink of war with Mexico.

1948  The US reinstitues conscription.

1954  Drew Pearson published an account of Sen. Lester Hunt's suicide in which he noted that the Democratic Senator had related to Pearson how Republican Senators had threatened to seek the prosecution of his son if he did not resign from the Senate, but otherwise describe the motivations for his suicide as complex. See yesterday's entry for more on this story.

June 17

1579  Francis Drake anchors in a harbor just north of present-day San Francisco, California, and claims the territory for Queen Elizabeth I, hence explaining the media's fascination with British Royal weddings.

1849  The United States flag raised at Ft. Laramie, now a military post.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1866  Colonel Henry B. Carrington's column left Fort Laramie and started up the Bozeman Trail.The command arrived at Fort Reno on June 28.

1876  The Sioux and Cheyenne block the northern advance of General Crooks Command, operating out of Ft. Fetterman, just over the Montana line in the Battle of the Rosebud.  Unlike what would happen to Custer shortly thereafter, his forces recovered sufficiently so as to be able to hold the field, and then retire from it in order shortly thereafter.  Crook would withdraw all the way to the Big Horns, where the command spent the balance of the summer, engaging in, amongst other things, fishing and hunting.

Somewhat fanciful rendition of Crook's command at the Rosebud.

Battle of the Rosebud Battlefield, Montana.

The Battle of the Rosebud was an important June 1876 battle that came, on June 17, just days prior to the Battle of the Little Big Horn.  Fought by the same Native American combatants, who crossed from their Little Big Horn encampment to counter 993 cavalrymen and mule mounted infantrymen who had marched north from Ft. Fetterman, Wyoming, at the same time troops under Gen. Terry, including Custer's command, were proceeding west from Ft. Abraham Lincoln.  Crook's command included, like Terry's, Crow scouts, and he additionally was augmented soon after leaving Ft. Fetterman by Shoshoni combatants.

The battlefield today is nearly untouched.

Called the Battle Where the Sister Saved Her Brother, or the Battle Where the Girl Saved Her Brother, like Little Big Horn, it was a Sioux and Arapaho victory, although it did not turn into an outright disaster like Little Big Horn. Caught in a valley and attacked, rather than attacking into a valley like Custer, the Army took some ground and held its positions, and then withdrew.  Crook was effectively knocked out of action for the rest of the year and retreated into the Big Horn mountains in Wyoming.

 

1904  Harry Hudson and John H. Henderlite fought at their sheep camp in the Big Horns and Hudson killed Henderlite, who claimed self defense and asserted that Henderlite came at him with a knife.  He was arrested, but let go for lack of evidence.  Henderlite was buried on location.

1913  U.S. Marines set sail from San Diego to protect American interests in Mexico.

1916  Wyoming National Guard mobilized and Federalized for Mexican border service.  On this same eventful day, additional American troops under the command of Gen. Pershing enter Mexico in an effort to track down Pancho Villa.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1918  Huge evening thunderstorms washed out railroad bridges in Central Wyoming on June 17.  Hardest hit was the area between Powder River and Waltman.

A rail line still runs between the towns today, but there are no bridges.  At the time, there were numerous ones, which shows how different rail bed construction was at the time.

Interestingly, at the time of 2018, this same day was also pretty rainy in Central Wyoming.

1921   Lightning strikes and ignites several oil tanks owned by Midwest Oil Company outside of Casper. The fire that resulted burned for 60 hours and consumed more than a half million gallons of oil.  It was a major disaster at the time.  Attribution:  On This Day.

1957  Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody dedicated.

May 1

Today is May Day, the International Workers' Holiday, in many localities
Today is Law Day in the United States, an observance created by the American Bar Association in the 1950s which was designed to counter Communist celebrations of May Day with a day dedicated to the rule of law.

1707 Parliament passes the Act of Union forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

1839   An 18 man party from Peoria, Illinois, under the leadership of Thomas J. Farnham, leaves Independence, Missouri, bound for Oregon.

1867  The Cheyenne leader, in boosterism typical for the day, declared Wyoming to be a "cattleman's paradise", citing to the grass and abundant water.

1868  Martha Jane Cannary, "Calamity Jane", arrived in Ft. Bridger.

1869  The Laramie Daily Sentinel starts publication:  Attribution:  On This Day.

1883  William F. Cody put on his first Wild West Show.

1898  The US defeats the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay, in the opening battle of the Spanish American War.  The Philippines would see the deployment of Wyoming volunteers by the end of the year when the Philippine Insurrection rapidly followed the Spanish American War.

1900 The Scofield mine disaster kills over 200 men in Scofield, Utah.

1903  Basin incorporated. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1909  Cheyenne replaces its volunteer fire department with a full time paid department.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1916   Sinclair Oil Corporation founded on this day in 1916
 

 

 Sinclair advertisement in Hudson Wyoming.

Sinclair Oil Corporation, which recently announced a major turnaround at its refinery in Casper Wyoming, was founded on this day in 1916.

The founder of the company, Harry F. Sinclair, created the company by merging the assets of eleven small petroleum companies. 

The company has long had a presence in Wyoming with even a town being named after it.

 

Former Parco Hotel in Sinclair, which was once called Parco.

1918  Casper Daily Press for May 1, 1918.

We return today to the Casper newspaper.

The headline was correct, actually.  The Germans were stalling out massively in the second stage of the 1918 spring offensive.  And they were making a massive effort, commencing on May 1, to move large numbers of troops to the West.

Not that this didn't pose its challenges.  Only yesterday the Germans had help Ukraine take Sevastopol from the putative Crimean soviet republic.  This was accompanied by the Ukrainian navy moving its ships out of harms way for the time being, although the Germans occupied those that were left.  Lenin ordered their commander to scuttle them, and he refused, showing a Ukrainian navy that proved more loyal to Ukraine in 1918 than it did a couple of years back when it basically defected to Russia.  And the Germans were fighting in Finland against the Red Finns for the White Finns.

Nonetheless, they were moving troops west now, which they should have done months ago.  Having taken massive casualties in the spring offensive, they had little choice.

Eddie Rickenbacker, who really was a race car driver, made his appearance in the paper as a fighter pilot on this day, at least in the local paper, for the first time, thereby achieving the role for which he is remembered.

And Mother's Day was coming up.

1920 It was announced that Cheyenne was to become a principal stop on the new U.S. Air Mail service route.

1923   Frances Beard became State Historian.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1980   Fort Sanders was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

2017  A complete freeze on state hiring commences.

April 27

1813 U. S. Army officer Zebulon M Pike, who had been an early explorer of the West, killed in action at age 34 during the War of 18212. His forces capture Toronto.

1888 First Wyoming Arbor Day proclaimed.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1916   Casper Daily Press for April 27, 1916
 

Posted by Pat, Marcus & Alexis at 5:00 PM
1944  The Wyoming Stock Growers Association gave the University of Wyoming its archives, a major contribution given the enormous role the WSGA had in the early history of the state. Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1953  A derailment of a Union Pacific train in the Red Desert kills three crewmen.  Attribution:  On This Day.

2016   The ghost of the Crow Treaty of 1868 appears in a Wyoming court.
 

 

 Crow Indians, 1908. These men may have been living at the time the Ft. Laramie Treaty came into being.

The Casper Star Tribune reported that today the trial of Clayvin Herrera, a game warden on the Crow Reservation in southern Montana, commences today in Sheridan.  Herrera is charged with taking a big game animal in Wyoming out of season in 2014.  In other words, with poaching.  He is not only a game warden on the Crow Reservation, he is also a Crow Indian.

Of interest, he's relying on one of the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1868 as a defense.  The thesis is that the treaty grants the Crows hunting rights in Wyoming, which it did (and not just to the Crows, but to other tribes as well, in related treaties of the same vintage) and therefore hunting in Wyoming out of Wyoming's season isn't necessarily a violation of the law.  It's an attractive and even a romantic legal defense.

It won't work.

Citation to the 1868 treaties (there is more than one) for various things has been made before and the point of the state; that subsequent developments in history and Wyoming's statehood abrogated that part of the treaty, are fairly well established.  A very long time ago, well over two decades now, one of the Federal judges in the state became so irritated by such an attempt that he actually stated that the treaty with the Sioux of the same vintage and location also authorized (which I don't think it did) shooting at tribal members off the reservation and nobody thought that was the case any more, stating that in the form of a question.  Again, I think that remark was not only evidence of frustration, and highly inappropriate, but it was flat out wrong, the treaty never authorized that, but citation to the treaty on dead letters within it is pointless which I suppose was in his inartfully made point.

Which brings us to the actual point.  Ineffectual though they are, and they are, the 1868 treaties really live on as a psychological influence, and that's interesting. Indeed, it's an interesting aspect of the first three of our Laws of History.  After all this time an ineffectual treaty lives on, wounded, but still there, in some odd fashion.  And with it, some old arguments and fights.

The Treaty:

Articles of a treaty made and concluded at Fort Laramie, Dakota Territory, on the seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, by and between the undersigned commissioners on the part of the United States, and the undersigned chiefs and head-men of and representing the Crow Indians, they being duly authorized to act in the premises.

ARTICLE 1.

From this day forward peace between the parties to this treaty shall forever continue. The Government of the United States desires peace, and its honor is hereby pledged to keep it. The Indians desire peace, and they hereby pledge their honor to maintain it. If bad men among the whites or among other people, subject to the authority of the United States, shall commit any wrong upon the person or property of the Indians, the United States will, upon proof made to the agent and forwarded to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs at Washington City, proceed at once to cause the offender to be arrested and punished according to the laws of the United States, and also re-imburse the injured person for the loss sustained.

If bad men among the Indians shall commit a wrong or depredation upon the person or property of any one, white, black, or Indian, subject to the authority of the United States and at peace therewith, the Indians herein named solemnly agree that they will, on proof made to their agent and notice by him, deliver up the wrong-doer to the United States, to be tried and punished according to its laws; and in case they refuse willfully so to do the person injured shall be re-imbursed for his loss from the annuities or other moneys due or to become due to them under this or other treaties made with the United States. And the President, on advising with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, shall prescribe such rules and regulations for ascertaining damages under the provisions of this article as in his judgment may be proper. But no such damages shall be adjusted and paid until thoroughly examined and passed upon by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and no one sustaining loss while violating, or because of his violating, the provisions of this treaty or the laws of the United States shall be re-imbursed therefor.

ARTICLE 2.

The United States agrees that the following district of country, to wit: commencing where the 107th degree of longitude west of Greenwich crosses the south boundary of Montana Territory; thence north along said 107th meridian to the mid-channel of the Yellowstone River; thence up said mid-channel of the Yellowstone to the point where it crosses the said southern boundary of Montana, being the 45th degree of north latitude; and thence east along said parallel of latitude to the place of beginning, shall be, and the same is, set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation of the Indians herein named, and for such other friendly tribes or individual Indians as from to time they may be willing, with the consent of the United States, to admit amongst them; and the United States now solemnly agrees that no persons, except those herein designated and authorized so to do, and except such officers, agents, and employés of the Government as may be authorized to enter upon Indian reservations in discharge of duties enjoined by law, shall ever be permitted to pass over, settle upon, or reside in the territory described in this article for the use of said Indians, and henceforth they will, and do hereby, relinquish all title, claims, or rights in and to any portion of the territory of the United States, except such as is embraced within the limits aforesaid.

ARTICLE 3.

The United States agrees, at its own proper expense, to construct on the south side of the Yellowstone, near Otter Creek, a warehouse or store-room for the use of the agent in storing goods belonging to the Indians, to cost not exceeding twenty-five hundred dollars; an agency-building for the residence of the agent, to cost not exceeding three thousand dollars; a residence for the physician, to cost not more than three thousand dollars; and five other buildings, for a carpenter, farmer, blacksmith, miller, and engineer, each to cost not exceeding two thousand dollars; also a school-house or mission-building, so soon as a sufficient number of children can be induced by the agent to attend school, which shall not cost exceeding twenty-five hundred dolla

The United States agrees further to cause to be erected on said reservation, near the other buildings herein authorized, a good steam circular saw-mill, with a grist-mill and shingle-machine attached, the same to cost not exceeding eight thousand dollars.

ARTICLE 4.

The Indians herein named agree, when the agency-house and other buildings shall be constructed on the reservation named, they will make said reservation their permanent home, and they will make no permanent settlement elsewhere, but they shall have the right to hunt on the unoccupied lands of the United States so long as game may be found thereon, and as long as peace subsists among the whites and Indians on the borders of the hunting districts.

ARTICLE 5.

The United States agrees that the agent for said Indians shall in the future make his home at the agency-building; that he shall reside among them, and keep an office open at all times for the purpose of prompt and diligent inquiry into such matters of complaint, by and against the Indians, as may be presented for investigation under the provisions of their treaty stipulations, as also for the faithful discharge of other duties enjoined on him by law. In all cases of depredation on person or property, he shall cause the evidence to be taken in writing and forwarded, together with his finding, to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, whose decision shall be binding on the parties to this treaty.

ARTICLE 6.

If any individual belonging to said tribes of Indians, or legally incorporated with them, being the head of a family, shall desire to commence farming, he shall have the privilege to select, in the presence and with the assistance of the agent then in charge, a tract of land within said reservation, not exceeding three hundred and twenty acres in extent, which tract, when so selected, certified, and recorded in the “land book,”as herein directed, shall cease to be held in common, but the same may be occupied and held in the exclusive possession of the person selecting it, and of his family, so long as he or they may continue to cultivate it.

Any person over eighteen years of age, not being the head of a family, may in like manner select and cause to be certified to him or her, for purposes of cultivation, a quantity of land not exceeding eighty acres in extent, and thereupon be entitled to the exclusive possession of the same as above directed.

For each tract of land so selected a certificate, containing a description thereof and the name of the person selecting it, with a certificate endorsed thereon that the same has been recorded, shall be delivered to the party entitled to it by the agent, after the same shall have been recorded by him in a book to be kept in his office, subject to inspection, which said book shall be known as the “Crow land book.”

The President may at any time order a survey of the reservation, and, when so surveyed, Congress shall provide for protecting the rights of settlers in their improvements, and may fix the character of the title held by each. The United States may pass such laws on the subject of alienation and descent of property as between Indians, and on all subjects connected with the government of the Indians on said reservations and the internal police thereof, as may be thought proper.

ARTICLE 7.

In order to insure the civilization of the tribe entering into this treaty, the necessity of education is admitted, especially by such of them as are, or may be, settled on said agricultural reservation; and they therefore pledge themselves to compel their children, male and female, between the ages of six and sixteen years, to attend school; and it is hereby made the duty of the agent for said Indians to see that this stipulation is strictly complied with; and the United States agrees that for every thirty children, between said ages, who can be induced or compelled to attend school, a house shall be provided, and a teacher, competent to teach the elementary branches of an English education, shall be furnished, who will reside among said Indians, and faithfully discharge his or her duties as a teacher. The provisions of this article to continue for twenty years.

ARTICLE 8.

When the head of a family or lodge shall have selected lands and received his certificate as above directed, and the agent shall be satisfied that he intends in good faith to commence cultivating the soil for a living, he shall be entitled to receive seed and agricultural implements for the first year in value one hundred dollars, and for each succeeding year he shall continue to farm, for a period of three years more, he shall be entitled to receive seed and implements as aforesaid in value twenty-five dollars per annum.

And it is further stipulated that such persons as commence farming shall receive instructions from the farmer herein provided for, and whenever more than one hundred persons shall enter upon the cultivation of the soil, a second blacksmith shall be provided, with such iron, steel, and other material as may be required.

ARTICLE 9.

In lieu of all sums of money or other annuities provided to be paid to the Indians herein named, under any and all treaties heretofore made with them, the United States agrees to deliver at the agency house, on the reservation herein provided for, on the first day of September of each year for thirty years, the following articles, to wit:

For each male person, over fourteen years of age, a suit of good substantial woolen clothing, consisting of coat, hat, pantaloons, flannel shirt, and a pair of woolen socks.
For each female, over twelve years of age, a flannel skirt, or the goods necessary to make it, a pair of woolen hose, twelve yards of calico, and twelve yards of cotton domestics.
For the boys and girls under the ages named, such flannel and cotton goods as may be needed to make each a suit as aforesaid, together with a pair of woollen hose for each.
And in order that the Commissioner of Indian Affairs may be able to estimate properly for the articles herein named, it shall be the duty of the agent, each year, to forward to him a full and exact census of the Indians, on which the estimate from year to year can be based.
And, in addition to the clothing herein named, the sum of ten dollars shall be annually appropriated for each Indian roaming, and twenty dollars for each Indian engaged in agriculture, for a period of ten years, to be used by the Secretary of the Interior in the purchase of such articles as, from time to time, the condition and necessities of the Indians may indicate to be proper. And if, at any time within the ten years, it shall appear that the amount of money needed for clothing, under this article, can be appropriated to better uses for the tribe herein named, Congress may, by law, change the appropriation to other purposes; but in no event shall the amount of this appropriation be withdrawn or discontinued for the period named. And the President shall annually detail an officer of the Army to be present and attest the delivery of all the goods herein named to the Indians, and he shall inspect and report on the quantity and quality of the goods and the manner of their delivery; and it is expressly stipulated that each Indian over the age of four years, who shall have removed to and settled permanently upon said reservation, and complied with the stipulations of this treaty, shall be entitled to receive from the United States, for the period of four years after he shall have settled upon said reservation, one pound of meat and one pound of flour per day, provided the Indians cannot furnish their own subsistence at an earlier date. And it is further stipulated that the United States will furnish and deliver to each lodge of Indians, or family of persons legally incorporated with them, who shall remove to the reservation herein described, and commence farming, one good American cow and one good, well-broken pair of American oxen, within sixty days after such lodge or family shall have so settled upon said reservation

ARTICLE 10.

The United States hereby agrees to furnish annually to the Indians the physician, teachers, carpenter, miller, engineer, farmer, and blacksmiths as herein contemplated, and that such appropriations shall be made from time to time, on the estimates of the Secretary of the Interior, as will be sufficient to employ such persons.

ARTICLE 11.

No treaty for the cession of any portion of the reservation herein described, which may be held in common, shall be of any force or validity as against the said Indians unless executed and signed by, at least, a majority of all the adult male Indians occupying or interested in the same, and no cession by the tribe shall be understood or construed in such a manner as to deprive, without his consent, any individual member of the tribe of his right to any tract of land selected by him as provided in Article 6 of this treaty.

ARTICLE 12.

It is agreed that the sum of five hundred dollars annually, for three years from the date when they commence to cultivate a farm, shall be expended in presents to the ten persons of said tribe who, in the judgment of the agent, may grow the most valuable crops for the respective year.

W. T. Sherman,
   Lieutenant-General.

Wm. S. Harney,
   Brevet Major-General and Peace Commissioner.

Alfred H. Terry,
   Brevet Major-General.

C. C. Augur,
   Brevet Major-General.

John B. Sanborn.

S. F. Tappan.

Ashton S. H. White, Secretary.

Che-ra-pee-ish-ka-te, Pretty Bull, his x mark. 

Chat-sta-he, Wolf Bow, his x mark. [SEAL.]

Ah-be-che-se, Mountain Tail, his x mark. 

Kam-ne-but-sa, Black Foot, his x mark. 

De-sal-ze-cho-se, White Horse, his x mark.

Chin-ka-she-arache, Poor Elk, his x mark. 

E-sa-woor, Shot in the Jaw, his x mark.

E-sha-chose, White Forehead, his x mark. 

—Roo-ka, Pounded Meat, his x mark. 

De-ka-ke-up-se, Bird in the Neck, his x mark. 

Me-na-che, The Swan, his x mark. 

Attest:

George B. Wills, phonographer.

John D. Howland.

Alex. Gardner.

David Knox.

Chas. Freeman.

Jas. C. O'Connor.

  

Crow hunters, 1909. 

 

 

April 18

1847     American troops under General Winfield Scott defeated Mexican forces under General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna at the Battle of Cerro Gordo during the Mexican War. Scott's engineers, including future Civil War generals R.E. Lee, G.B. McClellan, J.E. Johnston, and U.S. Grant, were instrumental in locating a flanking mountain trail, which Scott used to bring up his main force.

1875  Rain In The Face, with the aid of a sympathetic soldier, escaped from the stockade at Ft. Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory.

1887   Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth appeared in "Hamlet," in Cheyenne.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1890  The National Land & Livestock Co., incorporated with capital of $250,000, a massive amount at that time, given the value of the 1890 dollar.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1898  The U. S. House of Representatives passed the following resolution:

 1. That the people of the Island of Cuba are, and of right ought to be, free and independent.
2. That it is the duty of the United States to demand, and the Government of the United States does demand, that the Government of Spain at once relinquish its authority and government in the Island of Cuba, and withdraw its land and naval forces from Cuba and Cuban waters.
3. That the president of the United States be, and he hereby is, directed and empowered to use the entire land and naval forces of the United States, and to call into the actual service of the United States the militia of the several states to such an extent as may be necessary to carry these resolutions into effect.
4. That the United States hereby disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction or control over said island, except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its determination when that is accomplished to leave the government and control of the island to its people.

1916   Casper Daily Press for April 18, 1916
 

The following evening, the paper was doubting the news of Villa's demise the day prior, and in a whimsical fashion.

A civil war in China, amazingly enough, managed to make the front page, in spite of the nearer strife.

1919  Apostol post office established.  Apostol would become Osage in 1920.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Library.

1920  Pilot Butte oil field abandoned.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1924  Harry Jackson, an artist heavily associated with Wyoming, born in Chicago.

1934     The U.S. Army stops officially issuing sabers to the cavalry.  Sabers would continue on, unofficially, in at least some National Guard units.  Unit returns of the Wyoming National Guard's 115th Cavalry Regiment demonstrated that it was still issuing them as late as 1940.

Elsewhere:

 1923     The first baseball game was played at Yankee Stadium in New York City.  The Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 4 to 1.  Babe Ruth hit a home run in the inaugural game.

1942     B-25s from the USS Hornet raided Tokyo and other Japanese cities.

April 12

1844   Texas became a US territory.

1861     The Civil War began as Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The Civil War would have a major impact on the policing of the West, and on Western immigration.  Very soon after the commencement of the war, Regular Army units were withdrawn from the Frontier, at the very same moment when emigration to California and Oregon, and other points West, increased.  This heightened tensions with Native tribes, which in turn caused the Federal Government to increasingly rely upon various state units raised for Civil War for Frontier duty.  Ultimately, the Federal Government would also deploy "Galvanized Yankees", i.e, southern POWs paroled upon volunteering for Frontier service.  All of this was played out in Wyoming, as well as the rest of the West.

1870  Sioux reservation in South Dakota created.

1889  Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show departs New York for Paris.

1892  An invader by the name of Dowling, having escaped the TA at night on the 11th, reached Douglas, over 100 miles away, and sent a telegraph to Gov. Barber that the invaders were in trouble.  Barber had been in on the plot and participated to the extent that he was not going to activate the Guard to intervene.  Barber asked for the President to intervene, claiming "An insurrection exists in Johnson County. . . "  The telegram to the President did not get through, however, and he then began to telegram Senators Warren and Carey.  Carey spoke to the President, after being reached, that evening and President Harrison ordered Gen. Brooke in Omaha to send troops.  Troops at Ft. McKinney were ordered to move and departed in the middle of the night.  During the day, the besiegers constructed and began to use an hastily fortified wagon to move their lines closer to the ranch house and barn.

1905  Wyoming Wool Growers Association founded.

1916  A clash occurs between US Regulars and Mexican Carranzaistas at Parrel.

The Punitive Expedition: The Battle of Parral. April 12, 1916

 Corporal Richard Tannous, 13th Cavalry, wounded at Parral.

U.S. cavalry under Major Frank Tompkins, who had been at Columbus the day it was raided and who had first lead U.S. troops across the border, entered Parral Mexico. At this point, the Punitive Expedition reached its deepest point in Mexico.

The entry was met with hostility right from the onset.  Warned by an officer of Carranzas that his Constitutionalist troops fire on American forces, Tompkins immediately started to withdraw them  During the withdraw, with hostile Mexican demonstrators jeering the U.S. forces, Mexican troops fired on the American forces and a battle ensued.  While Mexican forces started the battle, it was lopsided with the Mexicans suffering about sixty deaths to an American two.  Tompkins withdrew his troops from the town under fire and sought to take them to Santa Cruz de Villegas, a fortified town better suited for a defense.  There Tompkins sent dispatch riders for reinforcements which soon arrived in the form of more cavalrymen of the all black 10th Cavalry Regiment. 

This marked the high water mark of the Punitive Expedition.

LoC caption:  "Removing Sgt. Benjamin McGhee of the 13th Cavalry who was badly wounded at Parral, Mexico."

Casper Daily Press: April 12, 1916
 

1919  April 12, 1919. Turmoil.

Villers Carbonnel, France.  Formerly a village of 500 souls.  April 12, 1919.

Scenes like the one above may explain French discontent with the Peace, as reported by the Casper Daily News.

Bolshevik sympathy was reported as the cause of the recent mutiny or near mutiny in the 339th Infantry's Company I, fighting in northern Russia. That may seem extreme but in fact there was some truth to it. The Michigan contingent to the unit had been drawn from National Guardsmen who included a fair number of immigrants from Finland who held fairly left wing views going into service and who were, in fact, becoming somewhat confused over their role in Russia, and loosing sympathy with it. Of course, simply wondering why they were fighting and dying in a cause that they hadn't really signed on for had something to do with that as well.

Speaking of Bolsheviks, plenty was going on in Bavaria, as the paper noted.  On this day the German Communist Party seized control of the Bavarian government, displacing the anarchist who had taken over a couple of days prior.

A little closer to home, tragedy struck in Fremont County when Harry Kynes from Shoshoni, only recently returned to the United States, died of what was undoubtedly the Spanish Flu.

Also closer to home, the news had now broken that Col. Cavendar's death was a suicide, as we earlier related, and was in the news again.  

We discussed the sad tale of Col. Cavendar here earlier.  His death was first reported as a heroic sacrifice, and then it was discussed as a scandalous example of mistreatment of National Guard officers.   

The weekly The Judge was looking at baseball.

The magazine The Judge used a play on words on its cover, relating labor strikes, which had been much in the news, with striking out in baseball.

The Saturday Evening post was looking at Spring.

Tacoma Washing, April 12, 1919.

And Tacoma was photographed.

And so one really eventful week drew to a close.  Communist revolution in Bavaria, a mutiny in the American Army in Russia, the assassination of Emiliano Zapata, Japanese troops firing on Korean civilians. .. it must of been frightening to pick up the paper.

1920  The Rock Springs Hide & Fur Company  was destroyed by fire.  Attribution:  Wyoming State Historical Society.

1934  Harry Sinclair purchased Parco.

1945  Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Ga., at age 63. Vice President Harry S Truman became president.

1967  A tornado, possibly one of several, hit ground near Veteran.

1984  Buffalo's Main Street historic district added to the National Registry of Historic Places.

2013  Soldiers of the Wyoming Army National Guard's 133d Engineering Company deploy to Bahrain.

2016   Lex Anteinternet: Marathon, Peabody and the airlines

And the news came today that Marathon has found a buyer for its Wyoming assets, the  topic we first touched upon here:

Lex Anteinternet: Marathon, Peabody and the airlines: This past week the state received the bad news that Marathon Oil Company, formerly Ohio Oil Company, which was once headquartered in Casper...

The buyer is Merit Energy.

All in all, this is good news for the state.  Merit's had along presence here and is a substantial operation, so  this would indicate that they are doing well and banking on the future of the petroleum industry in the state.